Most popular faith film? Doomsday warning

'It shows no sign of fading. It is selling better today than when it was launched'

It’s a dire warning of a coming judgment and doom, and really doesn’t have some of the characteristics one might expect of a No. 1 faith film.

But its message is so powerful, “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” which was the No. 1 faith film of 2012 and so far is the No. 1 faith film of 2013, reaches the one-year mark atop faith film rankings this week.

The documentary makes the case that the devastating attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, represent the same kind of limited judgment by God experienced by ancient Israel as reflected in the Book of Isaiah. Remarkably, and documented in the movie, are how U.S. leaders chose the very words of Israel’s leaders from thousands of years ago to respond to the attack – words of challenge to God.

“I knew when we set out to make this movie that it would be very successful,” said Joseph Farah, CEO of WND.com and producer of the documentary.. “However, I had no idea it would be this successful.”

It has been outselling any other faith film on DVD and surpassing nearly every other documentary.

“This movie is not only bigger than any Christian movie in 2012 and 2013, it’s also one of the most successful documentaries of any kind – bigger even than Dinesh D/Souza’s ‘2016,’” said Farah. “What’s more is that it shows no sign of fading. It is selling better today than when it was launched last year, with thousands of copies selling in Walmart, Amazon and retail outlets across America.”

He said the success of the documentary, which is based on the million-selling book, “The Harbinger,” by Jonathan Cahn, itself is a story.

“This is the proverbial little film that could. It has created its own distribution network … It’s a national sensation,” he said.

The book of Isaiah records that when there was a limited attack on the nation of Israel, the people did not respond by returning to God’s way and seeking Him. Instead, they issued a challenge, promising that they would rebuild bigger and better than before.

The parallels to the American leadership’s response to 9/11 is remarkable.

Most notably, while the towers still smoldered on Sept. 12, 2001, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle delivered an address to a joint session of Congress in which he actually cited and quoted Isaiah 9:10 – explaining, “That is what we will do. We will rebuild.”

Then on the fourth anniversary of 9/11, Sen. John Edwards, a candidate for vice president at the time, delivered a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus, framing his entire address around Isaiah 9:10.

Later, in his first State of the Union Address, Barack Obama framed his speech around the theme: “We will rebuild. We will recover.”

All of the American leaders think they are bringing words of comfort to the people, but they are in fact reciting an ancient curse of judgment as uttered by Israel’s leaders in their defiance against God.

It seemed like a natural reaction of public officials.

But the point of the bestselling Christian book of 2012 and the bestselling faith movie is that America is re-enacting an ancient drama played out thousands of years ago when Israel’s leaders did not repent and turn back to God after a limited strike on the land. Instead, their words are recorded in Isaiah 9:10, proclaiming they would simply rebuild bigger and better. The result was eventually the destruction of the nation.

Cahn recalls the “We will rebuild” comments repeated “like a mantra after 9/11.”

“And the subsequent policies that embodied these words would end up leading to the second shaking, the economic collapse,” he added.

Both the book and the documentary present a series of remarkable parallels between the judgment of ancient Israel and events impacting America since 9/11.

“The fall of ancient Israel hung on an ancient vow made by its leaders in the wake of God’s first warning of national judgment which came in the form of an enemy strike,” explains Cahn.

“The vow, found in Isaiah 9:10, is the key to the nine harbingers of judgment that foreshadowed the nation’s destruction. ‘The Harbinger’ reveals how these same nine harbingers of a nation under judgment are now reappearing on American soil. Key in this reappearance is the phenomenon of leaders uttering the ancient vow in one form or another. Sometimes the vow occurs in an eerily precise form, as in Tom Daschle’s public declaration before the U.S. Congress on the day after 9/11, when he recited the judgment vow word for word. Other times it appears in summary form – a voicing of the vow’s central phrase ‘We will rebuild.’ In the days after 9/11, one finds American leaders voicing these three central words, again and again and again, almost as a mantra. One of those who uttered them was the president of the United States, George Bush.”

In January of last year, “The Harbinger” skyrocketed to the top of the New York Times bestsellers list and stayed there all year long and through 2013 by suggesting America is following in the defiant footsteps of ancient Israel as recorded in Isaiah 9:10 by insisting on rebuilding bigger and better without considering what God was trying to tell the country through the catastrophic events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Isaiah records that Israel had known God and yet turned away from Him. Following a devastating attack by Assyria, rather than returning to God, the leaders declared “with pride and arrogance of heart” a defiant pledge: “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.” (Isaiah 9:10 KJV).

“The Harbinger” reveals the startling reality that beginning the day after 9/11, several American leaders began repeating that 2,500-year-old vow, word for word, in speeches in the Capitol. In the film, viewers get to see and hear the actual speeches.

“Having no idea what he was doing, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate [Tom Daschle] was declaring America as under the judgment of God,” Cahn gives as just one example. “It was the reenactment of an ancient mystery – and bore the most grave of consequences.”

In March, WND Films released “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” as a documentary follow-up to Cahn’s stunning research, revealing the eerie parallels between the reaction of ancient Israel and the national leaders in the U.S. It quickly became the No. 1 faith video in America and has remained in that spot for an unprecedented 52 weeks.

“Christians throughout America are using ‘The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,’ as the centerpiece of Bible studies and the movie is being screened in churches by the hundreds,” says Farah.